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ABBOTTHTHAYER 


MEMORIAL 

EXHIBITION 


MCMXXII 


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ABBOTT  HANDERSON  THAYER 


MEMORIAL  EXHIBITION 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016 


https://archive.org/details/memorialexhibitiOOthay 


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Self-Portrait 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM 
OF  ART 


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MEMORIAL 
EXHIBITION 
OF  THE  WORK  OF 
ABBOTT 
HANDERSON 
THAYER 


NEW  YORK 

MARCEI  20  THROUGH  APRIL  30 
MCMXXH 


COPYRIGHT  BY 


THE  METROPOLITAN  MUSEUM  OF  ART 
MARCH,  1922 


Of  thin  Catalogue  one  thousand  additional  co/iies  with  changes  were  printed 
by  Bruce  Rogers  and  William  Rdwin  Radge 


COMMITTEE  ON  THE  EXHIBITION 


Francis  C.  Jones,  Chairman 


E.  H.  Blashfield 


Thomas  W.  Dewing 


William  C.  Brownell 


Barry  Faulkner 


George  de  Forest  Brush  Daniel  C.  French 


C.  C.  Burlingham 


John  Gellatly 


Bryson  Burroughs 


Charles  A.  Platt 


Royal  Cortissoz 


Edward  Robinson 


Gerald  Thayer 


LENDERS  TO  THE  EXHIBITION 

Charles  Lansing  Baldwin 

Estate  of  Samuel  Bancroft,  Jr. 

Victor  G.  Bloede 

Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts 

John  F.  Braun 

Charles  C.  Burlingham 

Timothy  Cole 

Mrs.  Thomas  Millie  Dow 

Dr.  Theodore  Dunham 

George  J.  Dyer 

Mrs.  H ENRY  H.  F AY 

Mrs.  W.  W.  Fenn 

Professor  R.  T.  Fisher 


Dr.  Willard  B.  Force 

John  Gellatly 

Miss  Mary  Amory  Greene 

Mrs.  Hendrick  S.  Holden 

Estate  of  Walter  Hunnewell 

William  James 

Miss  Louise  L.  Kane 

Dana  Kittredge 

William  G.  Mathewson 

Mrs.  William  F.  Milton 

National  Academy  of  Design 

George  S.  Palmer 

Mrs.  Bruce  Porter 

Miss  Alice  L.  Sand 

Mrs.  J.  Montgomery  Sears 

Smith  College 

The  Misses  Clara  F.  and  Bessie  G.  Stillman 

Miss  Ellen  J.  Stone 

Professor  Henry  Taber 

Estate  of  Abbott  H.  Thayer 

Wellesley  College 

Mrs.  E.  M.  Whiting 

Worcester  Art  Museum 

An  Anonymous  Lender 


PREFACE 


When  the  Trustees  of  The  Metropolitan  Museum  decided 
to  hold  a loan  exhibition  of  the  works  of  Abbott  Handerson 
Thayer , they  invited  the  collaboration  of  some  friends  and 
admirers  of  the  artist , who  agreed  to  serve  on  a committee  of 
arrangements . To  this  committee , in  particular  to  Gerald 
Thayer , John  Gellatly  and  Royal  Cortissoz,  has  fallen  a 
great  part  of  the  work  of  selecting  the  exhibits  and  preparing 
the  catalogue.  The  Museum  gratefully  acknowledges  its  obli- 
gation to  the  committee  in  this  enterprise , and  on  behalf  of  its 
visitors  thanks  the  owners  of  the  paintings  and  drawings , 
whose  generosity  and  public  spirit  have  made  the  exhibition 
possible . Through  their  cooperation  the  Museum  has  been 
enabled  to  assemble  as  representative  a showing  of  Thayer  s 
work  as  could  well  be  brought  together.  The  one  highly  impor- 
tant group  of  paintings  unfortunately  lacking  is  that  from  the 
Freer  Collection.  This  group  it  was  impossible  to  obtain  for 
the  present  exhibition , owing  to  a clause  in  the  will  of  the  late 
Charles  L.  Freer  forbidding  the  removal  of  works  of  art  from 
the  Freer  Gallery , Washington , D.  C. 


The  cost  of  publishing  this  catalogue  has  been 
largely  met  by  the  subscription  of  a friend  of  the 
Museum. 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 


Committee  on  the  Exhibition 

Page  VII 

Lenders  to  the  Exhibition 

VII 

Preface 

IX 

Introduction 

XIII 

Catalogue 

1 

Illustrations 

17 

/ 


INTRODUCTION 


Appreciation  of  the  work  of  Abbott  Thayer  is  heightened  if 
we  regard  it  in  perspective,  taking  into  consideration  the  state 
of  American  art  when  he  began  his  career.  Inness,  La  Farge, 
Whistler,  Vedder,  and  Winslow  Homer  were  all  his  seniors.  But 
he  was  more  closely  allied  to  them  than  to  the  men  of  his  own 
generation.  There  was  a decisive  moment  in  the  history  of  Ameri- 
can art  in  which  an  old  point  of  view  gave  place  to  a new  one. 
It  fell  in  the  ’70’s,  when  we  discovered  Europe  for  purposes  of 
training.  We  went  in  for  craftsmanship  then,  an  object  which 
many  of  us  have  pursued  ever  since.  This  choice  has  promoted 
precious  gains,  but  they  have  been  more  favorable  to  the  develop- 
ment of  representative  art  than  of  creative  art;  the  ’70’s  ushered 
in  the  triumph  of  the  brilliantly  painted  morceau.  Thayer,  who 
was  nothing  if  not  a man  of  original  genius,  made  his  own  choice 
and  it  ran  counter  to  the  prevailing  tide  though  he,  too,  was 
nominally  swept  into  that  tide.  Proceeding  to  Paris  in  1875, 
when  he  was  twenty-six  years  old,  he  joined  in  the  search  after 
craftsmanship,  yet  preserved  intact  the  almost  antithetical  spirit 
which,  as  I have  said,  allies  him  to  the  seniors  aforementioned. 

It  was  the  spirit  of  the  painter  who  is  never  professionalized 
into  an  arid  sophistication,  in  whom  technique  remains  subser- 
vient to  the  idea,  whose  genius  steadfastly  preserves  its  spiritual 
force,  keeping  itself  “unspotted  from  the  world.”  This,  in  fact, 
is  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  all  that  is  finest  in  Ameri- 
can art.  Our  school  is  the  more  essentially  national  because  it 
has  never  been  one  of  organization.  We  have  been  not  only  un- 
aided but  unhampered  by  tradition.  The  influence  of  the  fore- 
fathers, of  men  like  Copley  and  Stuart,  with  the  academic  habit 

XIII  ]-*- 


INTRODUCTION 


of  eighteenth-century  England  behind  it,  long  ago  faded  away. 
The  masters  who  have  made  our  artistic  history  have  been  those 
with  something  of  their  own  to  say,  and  peculiarly  personal 
ways  of  saying  it.  Whistler,  living  in  the  environment  of  Europe, 
coming  into  close  contact  with  Courbet  and  with  the  Impres- 
sionists, taking  into  his  consciousness  such  diverse  modes  as 
those  of  Japan  and  Velasquez,  nevertheless  ranges  himself  as  the 
inventor  of  the  “Nocturne,”  an  absolutely  new-minted  type 
of  design.  Inness  traveled  in  Italy  and  France,  was  aware  alike 
of  Claude  and  Poussin  and  of  the  Barbizon  school,  yet  he  beat 
out  a style  having  no  precedent.  Winslow  Homer  painted  as 
though  the  schools  of  Europe  had  never  existed.  John  La  Farge, 
who  was  saturated  in  the  traditions  of  them  all,  went  on  to 
affirm  the  individuality  of  a born  colorist.  Originality,  in  short, 
is  the  corner-stone  of  American  art.  Our  painting  is  most  in 
character  when  it  has  a certain  almost  primitive  freshness, 
when  it  is  new  and  unspoilt.  Thayer  offers  an  outstanding  proof 
of  this  contention. 

The  constructive  elements  in  an  artist’s  formative  period  are 
sometimes  curiously  submerged  in  the  work  of  his  prime.  From 
his  youth  Degas  was  an  impassioned  disciple  of  Ingres.  But  in 
the  intensely  modern  productions  by  which  he  is  known  the 
influence  of  his  great  predecessor  is  discernible  only  in  beauties 
of  draftsmanship.  The  fruits  of  Thayer’s  pupilage  are  even  less 
apparent.  When  he  went  to  Paris  he  entered  the  atelier  of 
Gerome  and  there  sometimes  seems  to  me  to  have  been  some- 
thing almost  droll  in  the  subjection  of  our  visionary  American 
to  one  of  the  most  unimaginative  of  all  French  academicians. 
Thayer,  at  the  Ecole  des  Beaux-Arts,  appears  incongruity  itself. 
And  still  the  discipline  did  him  enormous  good.  It  strengthened 

*>[  xiv 


INTRODUCTION 


beyond  question  his  ability  to  draw.  He  could  always  draw  like 
an  angel,  if  he  chose  to  do  so.  But  it  is  important  to  keep  in 
mind  the  circumstance  that  he  would  never  lose  himself  in  the 
cultivation  of  drawing  for  its  own  sake;  draftsmanship  would 
always  be  for  him  nothing  but  a means  to  an  end.  For  the  same 
reason  I pass  over  as  virtually  negligible  the  ambitions  of  the 
animal  painter  which  engaged  him  on  his  return  from  Europe, 
as  they  had,  indeed,  before  he  went  abroad.  If  the  early  works 
of  an  artist  are  of  interest  it  is  usually  because,  in  one  way  or  an- 
other, they  prefigure  his  major  works.  It  is  so  in  Thayer’s  case 
only  in  a limited  degree.  The  backgrounds  in  his  old  cattle- 
pieces  point  to  the  mastery  which  he  was  to  achieve  in  landscape. 
I have  seen  a “Nature  Morte”  of  his,  painted  when  he  was  only 
nineteen,  which  was  not  only  drawn  very  skilfully,  but  in  form, 
color,  and  texture  disclosed  amazing  precocity.  All  this  I would 
maintain,  however,  is  beside  the  point.  Thayer  began  to  realize 
himself,  really  to  function  as  an  artist,  only  when  he  abandoned 
animal  painting,  not  long  after  his  return  to  America,  and  dedi- 
cated himself  to  pictures,  not  portraits,  of  women. 

This  exhibition,  varied  as  it  is  in  its  contents,  might  never- 
theless be  described  as  constituting  a tribute  to  one  ideal — 
Thayer’s  ideal  of  the  glamour  of  womanhood.  Leonardo,  the 
supreme  master  of  expression,  played  in  countless  drawings  with 
the  mysterious  beauty  of  woman.  In  the  “Mona  Lisa”  he  left 
that  beauty  more  baffling  than  ever.  For  Thayer  the  same  im- 
mortal theme  meant  the  same  long  and  wonderful  adventure. 
He  is  not  precisely  inscrutable  as  Leonardo  was,  and  as  Saint- 
Gaudens  was  in  the  famous  Adams  monument.  You  cannot  say 
of  a single  one  of  Thayer’s  women  that  “Hers  is  the  head  upon 
which  all  ‘the  ends  of  the  world  are  come.’  ” The  American  is 

*^[  XV  ]-*«- 


INTRODUCTION 

too  American  for  that.  Woman  for  him  is  neither  a Madonna 
nor  a sibyl.  She  is  profoundly  a human  creature.  He  raises  her 
humanity  to  a higher  power  by  bringing  out  its  spiritual  traits. 
I asked  him  once  to  explain  the  meaning  of  an  angelic  figure  of 
his  and  he  replied:  “How  you  set  me  talking!  As  to  what  my 
pictures  mean,  you  see  now,  exactly.  I want  the  image  of  one 
I worship  to  become  visible  for  all  time  to  this  world — voila 
tout /”  In  another  letter  he  develops  his  point  of  view  so  fully  that 
I must  quote  it  at  length : 

“The  violin,  whose  strings  ring  whenever  their  note  is  sounded  by 
an  outside  instrument,  is  pure  symbol  of  the  poet.  In  the  poet,  cumu- 
lative images  of  every  form  of  beauty  begin  in  earliest  infancy  to 
occupy  the  brain,  till,  in  his  early  maturity,  these  have  become  true 
touchstones,  like  the  violin  string.  Let  the  painter  once  look  upon  a 
person  who  has,  beneath  no  matter  how  many  surface  defects,  one 
dominant  greatness — purity  at  heart  and  fiery  love  of  truth  and 
beauty — and  in  his  own  heart  the  image  of  such  a personality  wakes 
into  brilliant  ringing  clearness  and  takes  the  helm,  saying:  ‘Watch 
this  being ! Thou  wilt  surely  see,  now  and  then,  the  being  she  really  is 
(it’s  a she  now!)  come  forth  and  be  fully  in  sight.  Watch,  then,  and 
take  in  how  she  looks,  for  in  those  aroused  moments  she  dominates  the 
whole  face  and  body,  ruling  all  their  details  into  her  heavenly  form.’ 
Now  he  who  in  this  way  comes  to  know  her  looks,  thereafter  waits,  no 
matter  how  long.  When  he  finds  himself  at  the  end  of  his  last  supply 
he  waits,  as  it  were,  outside  her  window,  sure  that  when  she  once  more 
stands  there  in  his  sight  he  will  quickly  see  how  to  go  on  with  his  pic- 
ture of  her.  Dear  Cortissoz,  this  is  absolutely  the  way  I work.  You 
delineate  it  almost  clearly.  It  is  because  you  see  it  that  I feel  I could 
crystallize  you  a little. 

“Right  you  are,  alas;  the  whole  trade  of  art  and  literature  is  for  the 

-*-[  XVI  ]-h- 


INTRODUCTION 


time  off  the  planet.  Man,  finding  himself  up  against  that  (if  he  knew  it) 
greatest  blessing,  the  obvious  impossibility  of  ever  understanding  ex- 
istence, will  forever  swing  between  periods  of  worship  and  periods  like 
our  present  one.  He  is  like  a frog  in  a tub;  he  can  see  the  light  and 
jump  up  at  it,  but  never  jump  out,  and  when  he  tires  of  this  he  finds 
that  searching  the  tub’s  corners  still  offers  no  escape.  So  with  man,  his 
epochs  of  worship  will  always  be  followed  by  a period — such  as  we  are 
now  somewhere  near  the  end  of — of  self-deluding  digging,  egged  on  by 
the  elation  of  unearthing  so  many  of  the  never  before  dreamed  of  tools 
that  God  evidently  uses — gravitation,  steam,  electricity,  radium,  etc. 

“In  due  time  man  will  again  tire  of  this  hope  and  again  be  the  simple 
worshiping  know-nothing.  His  cosmos  theories  will  forever  be  on  the 
same  principle  as  the  theories  of  a worm,  hatched  in  an  apple  and  still 
in  the  apple,  might  be  of  the  apple’s  external  aspect.  The  world  is  now 
all  for  what  they  call  science,  and  they  weigh  music,  painting  and 
poetry  by  what  it  can  do  in  this  field.  Or,  say,  man  is  a child  that 
awakes,  out  of  the  grass,  and  gazes  awhile  at  the  toys  his  parents  have 
set  about  him,  till,  wider  awake,  he  begins  to  work  them  and  learn 
what  they  can  do.  Elated  at  finding  out  some  of  the  stunts  the  light- 
ning toy  can  do  and  what  the  steam  one,  etc.,  he  comes  to  feel  very  big 
and  forgets  that  he  doesn’t  know,  and  can’t,  where  they  came  from. 
So,  for  the  time,  there  lowers  on  his  horizon  no  wholesome  reminder 
that  he  is  forever  (thank  heaven)  stumped. 

“The  horrible  Nemesis  that  lies  in  wait  for  this  individualism  is  the 
monkeyfiedness  of  to-day’s  craftsmen.  Of  old,  each  apprentice  strove 
merely  to  help  some  beautiful  picture  to  get  born  and  placed  where  it 
would  help  the  world,  and  this  habit  of  self-subordination  attended 
each  of  them  in  his  subsequent  masteryears.  Behold,  now,  the  whispers 
creep  through  the  crowd  that  self  must  assert  itself,  and  a change 
begins,  growing  till  ‘I,  I,  I!  See  how  well  I can  do  it!’  has  entirely  sup- 
planted ‘See  how  beautiful  it  is  !’  And  then  behold  these  egos  all  down 
at  the  monkey  level.  Like  monkeys  they  have  looked,  unseeing,  at 

-*-[  XVII  ]-K- 


INTRODUCTION 


their  master’s  service,  till  they  catch  up  the  brush  to  show  that  they 
can  do  it,  too.  Like  the  ape,  no  longer  seeing  what  this  act  of  painting 
was  making,  when  Gozzoli  or  Lippi  held  the  brush,  they  paint  and  paint. 
None  of  them  sees  that — whether  or  no  it  is  something  to  boast  of 
to  be  able  to  turn  a back-somersault,  or  paint  an  actually  delusive 
counterfeit  of  one  more  real  shop-girl, when  there  are  more  than  plenty 
always  to  be  seen  wherever  you  look — it  has  no  resemblance  to  being 
the  means  of  erecting  before  men’s  sight  the  crystal  type  of  any  desir- 
able attribute.” 

He  alludes  to  the  cumulative  images  of  the  poet.  That  is  what 
his  works  are.  And  I would  extend  the  figure  to  cover  not  only 
his  pictures  of  women  but  his  landscapes  and  his  studies  of 
flowers.  Lowell  said  after  hearing  one  of  Emerson’s  later  lec- 
tures that  he  felt  as  if  “something  beautiful  had  passed  that 
way.”  Thayer’s  paintings  give  you  that  impression.  Their  charm 
is  curiously  independent  of  technique,  though  the  technique  in 
them  is  often  beautiful.  Is  there  not,  I repeat,  something  almost 
amusing  in  the  thought  of  the  painter  of  these  pictures  as  a 
pupil  of  Gerome?  That  master  of  composition  must  have  given 
him  some  ideas  as  to  the  orderly  spacing  of  the  facts  placed  upon 
a canvas.  Thayer  probably  couldn’t  have  arranged  the  five  fig- 
ures in  his  mural  decoration  at  Bowdoin  College  so  well  if  he 
had  not  studied  the  art  of  design  in  his  young  manhood.  In  his 
pictures  the  figure  is  always  rightly  placed,  effectively  posed, 
and  in  some  of  the  larger  works,  like  the  great  “Caritas,” 
Thayer’s  pattern  has  a monumental  dignity  recalling  the  grand 
style  of  the  Renaissance.  He  could  be  the  masterly  workman. 
There  are  phases  of  this  exhibition  to  be  commended  to  the 
student  of  technique.  But  the  long  letter  I have  just  quoted  is 
the  letter  of  a man  of  moods,  meditative,  waiting  on  his  inspira- 

*►>[  xviii  ]-*• 


INTRODUCTION 


tion,  and  that  is  the  Thayer  of  the  paintings.  They  are  the  un- 
studied outgivings  of  creative  imagination. 

Mood  was  indispensable  to  Thayer.  Sometimes  in  looking  at 
such  a canvas  of  his  as  the  4 ‘Head  of  a Young  Man”  you  think 
first  of  just  his  power  as  a painter,  of  just  his  command  over 
form,  but  presently  you  think  even  more  of  the  spiritual  beauty 
with  which  he  invests  his  theme.  His  dependence  upon  mood 
makes  chronology  a matter  of  singular  unimportance  in  analy- 
sis of  his  work.  His  own  view  of  the  subject  comes  out  in  a letter 
written  to  me  in  the  spring  of  1916,  when  the  war  was  raging, 
the  war  which  filled  his  mind  and  to  which  his  discoveries  in  the 
art  of  camouflage  gave  him  a specially  close  relation.*  “All  well 
here,”  he  writes  from  Monadnock,  N.  H.,  “and  truly  I have 
done  an  advanced  figure  of  a girl.  It  is  always  silly  to  think  or  say 
that  one’s  last  work  is  progress.  So  many  traits  are  at  work 
maturing  themselves,  especially  in  the  attempts  of  a man  ad- 
vanced in  years.  He  may  gain,  as  I seem  to,  in  accomplishment , 
while  his  earlier  things  remain  the  most  valuable — sweetest- 
flavored,  perhaps.  My  efforts  for  the  Allies  still  occupy  a lot  of 
my  energy  but  really  the  preoccupation  seems  to  help  the  pic- 
tures to  get  born  without  being  mauled  by  my  life-long  vice  of 
morbid  over-straining.”  That  is  very  like  Thayer  in  its  detach- 
ment. He  saw  every  one  of  his  problems  as  something  new,  a 
new  leap  upon  achievement.  The  “mauling”  to  which  he  alludes 
is  immediately  understandable.  Scattered  all  through  the  work 

* Readers  who  wish  to  investigate  Thayer’s  work  as  a naturalist,  applying  his  re- 
searches to  artistic  ends,  should  turn  to  the  summary  of  his  discoveries,  “Concealing 
Coloration  in  the  Animal  Kingdom,”  written  by  his  son,  Gerald  H.  Thayer,  with  an  in- 
troductory essay  by  the  artist  himself.  The  Macmillan  Company,  1909.  The  New  York 
Tribune  of  August  16,  1916,  contains  an  essay  of  Thayer’s  on  the  application  of  his  dis- 
covery to  the  defensive  science  of  war. 


*v>[  XIX 


INTRODUCTION 


of  his  career  there  are  passages  at  variance  with  the  magnificent 
authority  which  you  recognize  in,  for  example,  the  marvelously 
painted  nude,  the  great  “Figure  Half-Draped.”  It  is  more  par- 
ticularly with  reference  to  that  commanding  exercise  in  tech- 
nique, and,  after  that,  with  the  whole  body  of  his  work  in  mind, 
that  I would  glance  at  the  injustice  Thayer  does  to  himself  in 
that  word  “morbid.”  There  never  was  a sweeter,  wholesomer 
painter.  Wistful  his  figures  are,  and  sometimes  sad,  but  they  are 
all  sharers  in  an  extraordinary  nobility.  It  is  in  their  fineness  that 
his  women  are  angelic.  His  children  breathe  the  fragrance  and 
purity  of  flowers.  Never  was  he  more  the  poet  than  in  his  inter- 
pretations of  the  exquisiteness  of  youth.  It  is  above  all  things  in 
the  beauty  that  he  created  that  Thayer  left  a great  heritage  to 
American  art. 

Royal  Cortissoz 


( XX  ]m- 


CATALOGUE 


CATALOGUE  OF  PAINTINGS 


ARRANGED  IN  CHRONOLOGICAL  ORDER 
WITH  DATES,  APPROXIMATE  OR  EXACT 

1 PORTRAIT  OF  A DOG  1868 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.  3 5%;  w.  24%  inches.  Signed:  A.  H.  Thayer. 
Lent  by  Mrs . E.  M.  Whiting. 

2 PASSENGER  PIGEONS  1868 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.18;  w.14  inches.  Signed:  A.  H. Thayer  1868. 
Lent  by  Albert  Milch. 

3 TIGER’S  HEAD  About  1872 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.27 ; w. 22  inches.  Signed:  A.  H.  Thayer. 

Lent  by  Victor  G.  Bloede. 

4 THE  OLD  LION  About  1872 

Oil  on  canvas:  h .25;  w. 361  inches. 

Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Samuel  Bancroft , Jr. 

5 PLAYING  SICK  1874 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.12;  w.16  inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 
Lent  by  Miss  Alice  L.  Sand. 

6 “WHO  SAID  RATS?”  1874 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.12;  w.16  inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 
Lent  by  Miss  Alice  L.  Sand. 

7 CROSSING  THE  FERRY  1875 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.32;  w. 24  inches.  Signed  and  dated:  A.  H. 
Thayer  1875. 

Lent  by  Charles  C.  Burlingham. 

8 AT  THE  MARKET  Paris,  1875 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.16;  w. 20  inches.  Signed  and  dated:  A.  H. 

Thayer.  Paris  1875. 

Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 


CATALOGUE 


9  THE  DONKEY  Paris,  1876 

These  little  Paris  pictures  were  done  in  spare  moments  dur- 
ing the  artist’s  four  years  at  the  ‘Beaux-Arts,’  under  Gerome. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.23§;  w.321  inches.  Signed  and  dated:  A.  H. 

Thayer.  Paris  1876. 

Lent  by  Mrs.  W.  W.  Fenn. 

10  PORTRAIT  OF  JOE  EVANS  Paris , about  1877 

Oil  on  canvas  mounted  on  board:  H.19J;  W.15J  inches. 

Signed:  for  Joe  Evans  from  A.  H.  Thayer.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  Charles  C.  Burlingham. 

11  CATTLE  1878 

In  Artists  of  the  Nineteenth  Century  and  Their  Works,  a 
book  by  Clara  Erskine  Clement  and  Laurence  Hutton,  pub- 
lished forty  years  or  more  ago,  we  read:  “Thayer,  Abbott  H. 
(Am.).  Born  in  Boston  in  1849,  and  brought  up  in  the  country, 
where  he  became  familiar  with  the  brute  creation,  the  painting 
of  which  has  been  his  specialty.”  The  first  nine  paintings  in 
the  present  list,  and  also  Nos.  11  and  13,  are  representative  of 
the  phase  and  period  of  Thayer’s  work  here  referred  to.  Among 
the  drawings  and  watercolors  by  him  on  exhibition  in  Gallery 
25  may  be  seen  still  earlier  examples  of  his  representations  of 
the  “brute  creation,”  including  a watercolor  of  a brook  trout 
done  when  the  artist  was  eleven  years  old,  in  the  year  1860. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.  22;  w.  18  inches.  Signed  and  dated:  A.  H. 

Thayer  1878. 

Lent  by  Miss  Ellen  J.  Stone. 

12  PORTRAIT  OF  MISS  ANNE  PALMER  1878 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.  21  f;  w.  18f  inches.  Signed  and  dated:  A.  H. 

Thayer  1878.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  Charles  Lansing  Baldwin. 


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13  LANDSCAPE  WITH  CATTLE  1879 

A woodcut  of  this  picture  was  made  by  Timothy  Cole. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.  24;  w.  32  inches.  Signed  and  dated:  A.  H. 

Thayer  1879.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  Timothy  Cole. 

14  BABY  ASLEEP  ( a study  ) 1879 

William  Henry  Thayer,  2nd;  the  artist’s  first  son. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.  12f ; w.  16 f inches.  Signed:  A.  H.  Thayer. 
Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 

15  HEAD  OF  THE  ARTIST’S  FATHER  About  1879 

Dr.  William  Henry  Thayer,  physician;  born  in  Boston; 
practised  in  Keene,  New  Hampshire,  and  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. ; Sur- 
geon of  the  14th  New  Hampshire  Volunteers  in  the  Civil  War. 
Lent  by  Professor  R.  T.  Fisher.  Not  exhibited. 

16  PORTRAIT  OF  THE  ARTIST’S  SISTER  1879 

Sue  Thayer  (Mrs.  E.  M.  Whiting). 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.23;  w.19  inches.  Signed:  A.  H.  Thayer. 
Illustrated. 

Lent  by  Mrs.  E.  M.  Whiting. 

17  SLEEPING  BABY  1880 

William  Henry  Thayer,  2nd. 

Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 

18  PORTRAIT  OF  MISS  ANNIE  HOE  1880 

Oil  on  canvas:  H.14J;  w.12  inches.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  Charles  C.  Burlingham. 

19  PORTRAIT  1881 

Mrs.  William  F.  Milton.  One  of  the  artist’s  earliest  com- 
missions for  a portrait  in  oil.  Painted  in  Pittsfield. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.32;  w.24  inches.  Signed  and  dated:  Abbott 
H.  Thayer  1881.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  Mrs.  William  F.  Milton. 


[ 3 > 


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20  WINTER  LANDSCAPE  (a  sketch)  About  1881 

Peekskill,  N.  Y. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.20;  w.13|  inches.  Signed:  A.  H.  Thayer. 

Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 

21  PORTRAIT  OF  A YOUNG  LADY  1881 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.20|;  W.16J  inches.  Signed  and  dated:  A.  H. 
Thayer  1881.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  John  Gellatly. 

22  PORTRAIT,  LADY  IN  WHITE  1883 

Miss  Bessie  Stillman. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.36;  w.28  inches.  Signed:  A.  H.  Thayer. 

Lent  by  the  Misses  Clara  F.  and  Bessie  G.  Stillman. 

23  THE  SISTERS  188k 

Miss  Bessie  and  Miss  Clara  Stillman. 

Oil  on  canvas:  H.54J;  w. 36 1 inches.  Signed:  A.  H.  Thayer. 

Lent  by  the  Misses  Clara  F.  and  Bessie  G.  Stillman. 

24  PORTRAIT-STUDY  About  188k 

Oil  on  canvas : h.  29 ; w.  25  inches.  Inscribed : A.  H.  Thayer  by 
E.  B.  T. 

Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Abbott  H.  Thayer . 

25  FIGURE,  HALF-DRAPED  About  1885 

There  is  a temptation  to  call  this  picture  Melpomene , or  by 
some  such  muse-name;  but  record  is  lacking  of  any  such  inten- 
tion on  the  artist’s  part.  He  seldom  named  a picture;  and  most 
of  those  which  have  acquired  distinctive  titles  have  been  named 
by  others — sometimes  with  his  knowledge  and  approval — after 
leaving  his  hands.  The  present  picture  has  a curious  history. 
Painted  in  New  York  City  in  the  ’80’s,  it  was  unearthed,  in 
some  old  box  of  canvases  and  forgotten  sketches,  in  the  barn  at 
the  artist’s  home  at  Monadnock,  New  Hampshire,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1920.  No  one,  apparently,  of  the  artist’s  family  had  re- 


■**“[  4 ]■ 


CATALOGUE 


membered  its  existence  during  those  thirty  years  or  more,  and 
it  would  seem  that  the  artist  himself  had  lost  track  of  it. 

Oil  on  canvas:  H.71J;  w.48  inches.  Signed:  A.  H.  Thayer. 

Illustrated. 

Lent  anonymously. 

26  MOTHER  AND  CHILD  1886 

The  artist’s  first  wife,  Kate  Bloede  Thayer,  and  his  son 
Gerald,  aged  two  years. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.36;  w. 28  inches.  Signed  and  dated:  Abbott 
H.  Thayer.  Peekskill  1886.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  John  Gellatly. 

27  WATER-LILIES  About  1886 

One  of  the  few  flower  pictures  by  Thayer. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.16;  w.12|  inches.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  Professor  Henry  Taber. 

28  PORTRAIT  OF  A LITTLE  GIRL  1886 

Daughter  of  Mrs.  Henry  H.  Fay  of  Boston. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.16;  w.22  inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 
Lent  by  Mrs.  Henry  H.  Fay. 

29  PORTRAIT  OF  ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 

President  of  Wellesley  College,  1882-1887. 

Oil  on  canvas : h.  50 ; w.  36  inches.  Signed : Abbott  H.  Thayer. 
Illustrated. 

Lent  by  Wellesley  College. 

30  GIRL  IN  WHITE  1888  or  1889 

Margaret  Greene,  of  Boston;  a descendant  of  the  painter 
Copley. 

Oil  on  canvas : h.  37 f ; w.  29 \ inches.  Signed : A.  H.  Thayer. 
Illustrated. 

Lent  by  Miss  Mary  Amory  Greene. 

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ANGEL  About  1889 

The  artist’s  daughter  Mary. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.  36;  w.  28  inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H. Thayer. 
Illustrated. 

Lent  by  John  Gellatly. 

32  WINGED  FIGURE  1889 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.50|;  w.36  inches.  Signed  and  dated:  Abbott 
H.  Thayer  1889.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  Smith  College. 

33  BROTHER  AND  SISTER  1889 

The  artist’s  daughter  Mary  and  son  Gerald. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.36;  w.28  inches.  Signed  and  dated:  Abbott 
H.  Thayer  New  York  1889.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  John  Gellatly. 

34  PORTRAIT  OF  A YOUNG  GIRL  1891 

Miss  Mary  Hunnewell  of  Wellesley  (Mrs.  Williams). 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.  44J;  w.  31  inches.  Signed  and  dated: 

Abbott  H.  Thayer  1891.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Walter  Hunnewell. 

35  VIRGIN  ENTHRONED  1891 

The  artist’s  children — Mary,  Gerald,  and  Gladys. 

Oil  on  canvas:  H.72J;  w.52J  inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H. 

Thayer.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  John  Gellatly. 

36  HEAD  OF  A BOY  1891 

Raphael  Welles  Pumpelly,  son  of  Raphael  Pumpelly,  the 
geologist  and  explorer. 

Oil  on  canvas:  H.15J;  w.13|  inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H. 
Thayer.  Illustrated. 

Property  of  The  Metropolitan  Museum  of  A rt. 


6 ]-<«- 


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37  PORTRAIT  OF  A LITTLE  GIRL  About  1891 

Daughter  of  J.  Montgomery  Sears  of  Boston. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.541;  w.38  in.  Signed : Abbott  H.  Thayer. 

Lent  by  Mrs.  J.  Montgomery  Sears. 

38  PORTRAIT  About  1891 

Miss  Faith  Mathewson  of  Washington. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.24;  w.19  inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 
Illustrated. 

Lent  by  William  G.  Mathewson. 

39  PORTRAIT  OF  THE  ARTIST’S  FATHER  About  1891 

Dr.  William  Henry  Thayer. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.  18;  w.  14  inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H. 

Thayer. 

Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 

40  PORTRAIT  OF  A LITTLE  BOY  About  1891+ 

George  Phillips  of  Boston. 

Lent  by  George  W.  Phillips. 

41  PORTRAIT  OF  A THOROUGHBRED  HORSE, 

“HARBOROUGH”  About  1891+ 

Harborough  was  a gift  to  the  artist  from  his  life-long  friend, 

S.  Dana  Kittredge  of  Hastings-on-Hudson. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.24;  w.20  inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H. 

Thayer. 

Lent  by  S.  Dana  Kittredge. 

42  A BRIDE  About  1895 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.21;  w.17  inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H. 

Thayer.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  John  Gellatly. 


{7} 


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43  PORTRAIT  1896 

Josephine  Balestier  (Mrs.  Theodore  Dunham). 

Oil  on  canvas:  H.35J;  w.25  inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H. 

Thayer. 

Lent  by  Dr.  Theodore  Dunham. 

44  ROSES  About  1896 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.221;  w.31i  inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H. 

Thayer.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  the  Worcester  Art  Museum. 

45  CARITAS  1897 

Central  figure  Elise  Pumpelly  (Mrs.T.  Handasyd  Cabot), 
daughter  of  Raphael  Pumpelly. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.84|;  W.54J  inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H. 
Thayer.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts. 

46  MY  CHILDREN  About  1897 

An  unfinished  group;  the  artist’s  children — Mary,  Gerald, 
Gladys. 

Oil  on  canvas:  H.86J;  w.  61|  inches.  Inscribed:  My  Children 
Abbott  H.  Thayer  Never  to  receive  one  pin  point  of  re- 
touching see  back  A.  H.  T. 

Lent  by  John  Gellatly. 

47  ROSES  About  1897 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.  25;  w.28f  inches.  Signed : Abbott  H. Thayer. 
Lent  by  Miss  Louise  L.  Kane. 

48  PORTRAIT  1897 

Bessie  Price. 

Clarke  Prize,  National  Academy  of  Design. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.28;  w.19|  inches.  Signed  and  dated: 

Abbott  H.  Thayer  1897.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  Mrs.  Hendrick  S.  Holden. 

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49  YOUNG  WOMAN  1898 

The  same  model,  Bessie  Price  (Mrs.  Fred.  Beaulieu),  as 
in  Stevenson  Memorial,  the  Winged  Figure,  No.  69,  the 
Angel,  No.  54,  and  the  Portrait,  No.  48. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.39|;  w.31f  inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H. 
Thayer.  Illustrated. 

Property  of  The  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art. 

50  CORNISH  HEADLANDS  1898 

Near  Saint  Ives,  Cornwall,  England.  One  of  the  distant 
promontories  is  perhaps  Gurnard’s  Head. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.  30;  w.  40  inches.  Signed  and  dated:  Saint 
Ives  1898  A.  H.  Thayer.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  John  Gellatly. 

51  ROSEMARY  1898 

Mary  Dow,  daughter  of  Thomas  Millie  Dow,  of  Scotland 
and  Saint  Ives,  Cornwall,  England. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.28;  w.21f  inches.  Signed:  A.  H.  Thayer. 
Illustrated. 

Lent  by  Mrs.  Thomas  Millie  Dow. 

52  PORTRAIT  OF  ELSIE  PILCHER  1898 

Stepdaughter  of  Thomas  Millie  Dow. 

Oil  on  canvas:  H.25J;  w.  19^  inches.  Signed:  A.  H.  Thayer. 
Illustrated. 

Lent  by  Mrs.  Thomas  Millie  Dow. 

53  SELF-PORTRAIT  1899 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.30;  w .25  inches.  Signed  and  dated  on  back: 
Abbott  H.  Thayer  April  1 1899  N.  A.  D. 

Lent  by  the  National  Academy  of  Design. 

54  ANGEL  (Left  unfinished;  worked  on  again,  1921)  1899 

One  of  the  last  things  the  artist  touched,  a few  weeks  before 
his  death. 

Oil  on  panel:  h.521;  w. 381  inches.  Signed  : A.  H.  Thayer. 
Illustrated. 

Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 


-[9} 


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55  HEAD  OF  SHANDY  1901 

Son  of  Dr.  E.  Channing  Stowell,  of  Dublin  and  Marlboro, 
N.H. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.21;  w.  19  J inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H. 

Thayer. 

Lent  by  George  S.  Palmer. 

56  MARY  About  1902 

The  artist’s  daughter. 

Oil  on  canvas : h.  24 ; w.  22  inches.  Signed : Abbott  H.  Thayer. 
Illustrated. 

Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 

57  PORTRAIT  OF  A LADY  About  1902 

Mrs.  William  B.  Cabot  of  Boston. 

Oil  on  canvas : h.  39 \ ; w.  32  inches.  Signed  and  dated : Abbott 
H.  Thayer  190(F)  (indistinct).  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  J ohn  Gellatly. 

58  PORTRAIT  OF  BEATRICE  1902 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.63;  w.32  inches.  Signed  and  dated:  Abbott 
H.  Thayer  1902.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  Mrs.  Hendrick  S.  Holden. 

59  STEVENSON  MEMORIAL  1903 

One  of  the  several  attempted  or  projected  ‘memorials,’  in 
paint,  to  Robert  Louis  Stevenson,  whose  work  and  personality 
the  artist  boundlessly  admired  and  loved,  although  he  had 
never  met  him.  Of  the  somewhat  various  attempts  at  this 
‘memorial’  painting,  the  present  picture  is  the  only  one  which 
eventuated  as  such.  The  picture  My  Children,  No.  46,  was  at 
one  time  intended  as  a Stevenson  Memorial.  The  beautiful 
Irish  girl  with  brooding  eyes  made  a fit  subject  for  a Stevenson 
angel.  Vaea,  the  inscription  on  the  rock,  is  the  name  of  the 
mountain  overlooking  Stevenson’s  home  in  the  Samoan  Is- 
lands, in  a grave  upon  whose  summit  “Tusitala,”  as  they 
called  him,  was  laid  to  rest,  in  accordance  with  his  expressed 

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wish,  by  the  natives,  who  had  to  hew  a track  through  the 
jungle  to  fulfil  this  last  request  of  their  beloved  master.  (See 
the  account  of  Stevenson’s  burial  at  the  end  of  the  second  vol- 
ume of  the  Vailima  Letters.) 

“Under  the  wide  and  starry  sky, 

Dig  the  grave  and  let  me  lie. 

Glad  did  I live  and  gladly  die, 

And  I laid  me  down  with  a will. 

“This  be  the  verse  you  grave  for  me: 

Here  he  lies  where  he  longed  to  be; 

Home  is  the  sailor,  home  from  the  sea, 

And  the  hunter  home  from  the  hill.” 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.81§;  w. 60  inches.  Signed  and  dated: 

Abbott  H.  Thayer  1903.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  John  Gellatly. 

60  GLADYS  About  1905 

The  artist’s  daughter. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h .25;  W.23J  inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H. 

Thayer.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 

61  PORTRAIT  OF  A BOY  1905 

Henry  Thayer  Whiting,  the  artist’s  nephew. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h. 24|;  w. 22^-  inches.  Signed  and  dated:  begun 
1903  Abbott  H.  Thayer  Monadnock  1905.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  Mrs.  E.  M.  Whiting. 

62  PROFILE,  YOUNG  WOMAN  About  1906 

The  artist’s  niece,  Eleanor  Fisher. 

Oil  on  panel:  h.20|;  w.  15 finches.  Signed:  Abbott  H. Thayer. 
Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 


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63  PORTRAIT  (Unfinished)  1908 

Eleanor  Fisher  (Mrs.  Laurence  Grose),  the  artist’s 
niece. 

Oil  on  panel:  h.36;  w.28  inches.  Signed  and  dated:  Abbott 
H.  Thayer  Monadnock  1908. 

Lent  by  Mrs.  Bruce  Porter. 

64  GIRL  ARRANGING  HER  HAIR  (Worked  on  again,  1921) 

A.  E.  W.  (Mrs.  Gerald  Thayer).  About  1909 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.25;  w.24  inches.  Signed  and  dated:  A.  H. 

Thayer  1918.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 

65  ANGEL  OF  DAWN  (Finished  1918)  About  1909 

A.  E.  W.  (Mrs.  Gerald  Thayer). 

Oil  on  canvas:  H.102J;  w.62f  inches.  Signed  and  dated: 
Abbott  H.  Thayer  1919.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 

66  YOUNG  WOMAN  IN  FUR  COAT  About  1910 

A.  E.  W.  (Mrs.  Gerald  Thayer). 

Oil  on  canvas:  H.44J;  w. 26  § inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H. 

Thayer.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  Dr.  Willard  B.  Force. 

67  LADY  IN  GREEN  VELVET  (Finished  1918)  About  1910 

A.  E.  W.  (Mrs.  Gerald  Thayer). 

Gold  medal  and  first  prize,  International  Exhibition,  Car- 
negie Institute,  Pittsburgh,  1919. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.49|;  w.371  inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H. 

Thayer.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Abbott  II.  Thayer. 


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68  HEAD  OF  A MAN  (sketch)  About  1911 

Richard  Thornton  Fisher,  Professor  of  Forestry  at  Har- 
vard, the  artist’s  nephew. 

Oil  on  cardboard:  h.22|;  w.17J  inches.  Inscribed:  to  Bill 
Janies  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 

Lent  by  William  James. 

69  WINGED  FIGURE  1912 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.  50|;  w.  38^  inches.  Signed  and  dated: 
Abbott  H.  Thayer  1912.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  John  F.  Braun. 

70  PORTRAIT  OF  A LITTLE  GIRL  1917 

Elizabeth  Beaulieu. 

Oil  on  panel:  H.43J;  w. 21  ^ inches.  Signed  and  dated: 

Abbott  H.  Thayer  June  20  1917.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  the  Worcester  Art  Museum. 

71  PORTRAIT  1917 

A.  E.  W.  (Mrs.  Gerald  Thayer). 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.211;  w.17  inches.  Signed  and  dated: 

Abbott  H.  Thayer  1917.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  Charles  Lansing  Baldwin. 

72  WINTER  SUNRISE,  MONADNOCK  1918 

From  the  artist’s  home  at  Dublin,  New  Hampshire.  He 
painted  several  versions,  both  large  and  small. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.54;  w. 63J  inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H. 

Thayer.  Illustrated. 

Property  of  The  Metropolitan  Museum  of  Art. 

73  HEAD  OF  A BOY  1918 

Townsend  Martin. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h. 21;  w.17  inches.  Signed:  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 

Lent  by  George  J . Dyer. 


H 13  >+ 


CATALOGUE 


74  BOY  AND  ANGEL  About  1917  to  1920 

This  the  artist  was  inclined  to  regard  as  his  most  significant 
and  finest  composition.  He  tried  several  versions,  of  which 
the  present  is  the  most  finished.  The  boy  is  Townsend 
Martin. 

Oil  on  panel:  h.61|;  w.49  inches.  Signed  and  dated: 

Abbott  H.  Thayer  April  2,  1920.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 

75  SELF-PORTRAIT  1919 

Oil  on  panel : h.  22  J ; w.  24  inches.  Signed  and  dated : 

Abbott  H.  Thayer  1919.  Frontispiece . 

Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 

76  WINTER  SUNRISE,  MOUNT  MONADNOCK  1919 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.531;  w.  621  inches.  Signed  and  dated: 
Abbott  H.  Thayer  1919.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 

77  HEAD  1921 

The  artist’s  daughter;  done  in  the  early  spring  of  1921,  a few 
weeks  before  the  artist’s  death. 

Oil  on  panel:  H.18f;  W.14J  inches.  Inscribed:  A.  H.  Thayer 
by  E.  B.  T. 

Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 

78  MONADNOCK  ANGEL  1920  and  1921 

Thayer’s  last  picture;  unfinished,  the  idea  of  putting  his  cher- 
ished theme  of  Monadnock  Sunrise  into  this  picture  as  a back- 
ground having  come  to  him  in  the  winter  or  early  spring  of 
1921.  Possibly  his  last  touches  of  creative  work,  but  a few  weeks 
before  his  death,  were  on  this  picture. 

Oil  on  canvas:  h.91;  w.59f  inches.  Inscribed:  A.  H.  Thayer 
by  E.  B.  T.  Illustrated. 

Lent  by  the  Estate  of  Abbott  H.  Thayer. 

■*»-[  14  ]-*«- 


DRAWINGS 


A REPRESENTATIVE  GROUP  OF  DRAWINGS  by 

Abbott  Handerson  Thayer  not  here  listed  in  detail  is  on  exhi- 
bition in  Gallery  25,  the  room  among  the  paintings  galleries 
regularly  devoted  to  drawings. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


. , ' ; 


- 


•►»(  10  )~C 


Portrait  or  Joe  Evans 


Portrait  of  Miss  Anne  Palmer 


/ 


13  )«+ 


Landscape  with  Cattle 


/ 


16  )~e 


Portrait  of  the  Artist’s  Sister 


'1 


•*-(  18  )-+ 


Portrait  or  Miss  Annie  Hoe 


/• 


+»(  19  )~t- 
PORTRAIT 


+-(  21  )«-*- 

Portrait  of  a Young  Lady 


*►>(  25 


Figure  Half-Draped 


? . > 


■ 


‘ 


•*-(  26  )-h- 


Mother  and  Child 


f 


*v>(  27  )-«-*• 


Water  Lilies 


■*»-(  29  )-h- 


PORTRAIT  OF  ALICE  FREEMAN  PALMER 


?■ 


30  )«+ 


Girl  in  White 


—(  31  )«♦ 


Angel 


-►<-(  32  )-*• 


Winged  Figure 


+-(  33  )~e 


Brotiier  and  Sister 


•►>(  34  )-** 


Portrait  of  a Young  Girl 


' * 


35  )-** 


Virgin  Enthroned 


■ 


' 


-K  36  )-«- 


H EAD  OF  A Boy 


*^(  38  )•*<* 


Portrait 


;Y..'  PVv\; 


42  )■*<* 


A Bride 


*►»“(  44  )-*«- 


Roses 


• « .tLI 


■►*-(  45  )-««- 

Caritas 


->->(  48 


PORTRAIT 


■*-(  49  )-*- 


Young  Woman 


' 


■*»-(  50  )-*«- 


Cornish  Headlands 


-*-(  51  )-*<• 


Rosemary 


/ 


52  )-*«- 


Portrait  of  Elsie  Pilcher 


-n-(  54  )-*<- 


Angei 


« 


■*»■(•  56  )-*h- 


Mary 


*^>(  57  )-*<• 

Portrait  of  a Lady 


■ 


■ 


HI  ^/TgyMjl 


■*»-(  58  )“**■ 


Portrait  of  Beatrice 


*>^(  59  )-*«* 

Stevenson  Memorial 


•»(  60  )-*-«- 


Gladys 


+-(  61  )~e 


Portrait  of  a Boy 


+-(  64  )-*• 


Girl  Arranging  Her  Hair 


■*»-(  65  )-*<- 


Angel  of  Dawn 


->*-(  66  )-h- 


Young  Woman  in  a Fur  Coat 


-►»-(  67  )-h- 


Lady  in  Green  Velvet 


+»(  69  )*t- 


Winged  Figure 


->~(  70  )-+ 


Portrait  or  a Little  Girl 


{ 


-K  71  )- 


Portrait 


72  )-*«* 


Winter  Sunrise 


Monadnock 


■**-(  74  )-«* 

Boy  and  Angel 


•*-(  76  )«-*- 

Winter  Sunrise,  Mount  Monadnock 


/ 


■»-(  78  )-*- 


Monadnock  Angel 


' 


Head  of  the  Artist's  Son 


(Drawing) 


The  Artist’s  Son 
( Drawing ) 


/7,  S'  y 


Head  of  a Child 


{Drawing) 


Girl  Arranging  Hair 
{Drawing) 


Portrait  of  Mary 


( Drawing ) 


A Head 


{Drawing) 


MM 


Sketch  for  the  Virgin 


{Drawing) 


Sketch  for  a Portrait 

{Drawing) 


A Girl  Standing 


{Drawing) 


1 , 


Monadnock 


{Drawing) 


Study  for  Caritas 

{Drawing) 


r 


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